1. The data you hold

The amount of time and money you spend safeguarding your data will depend on how vital it is to your business and how likely you are to suffer a data loss. To assess the risks, you need to know what data you store and use in your company.

If the data you hold includes personal data (and it almost certainly will), carry out regular data protection audits, to get an overview of the data you use, how well it is protected and how you are complying with data protection legislation.

Establish what data you store in your business

Many businesses store information across multiple systems and in different locations.

Think about data held on central servers as well as information stored on laptops, staff computers, tablets and smartphones, and memory sticks. You may also have created or hold data on social networks such as Facebook.

Consider data stored in the cloud (for example, on a service like Dropbox) and whether or not it is synchronised with one or more computers within the business.

You may store data within your CRM or project management systems - most commonly in the form of file attachments.

Build the most comprehensive list of data possible. Make sure you record where data is stored.

Ensure that you clearly differentiate between personal and non-personal data. Personal data will be subject to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Remember to include information stored outside of your business. For instance, your website is probably held on a server owned by a third-party hosting company, and you may use an external server for email or file storage purposes.

Examine how valuable this data is

Mission-critical data is vital. If lost, it can seriously damage your business. You will want to give most protection to this data. This could include, for instance, your accounts data.

Customer records and their accounting and financial data is vital and you must protect it by law.

Mission-critical data may also include employee records and valuable market intelligence.

Personal data may or may not be mission-critical, but a data breach involving personal data could be extremely costly to your business in light of the potential fines under the GDPR (up to 4% of global turnover or €20m in the most extreme cases).

Look at how you use this data

Consider who has access to the data and how often it is used or changed.

Some data may be in constant use by many employees. For instance, your customer database.

Other data, like staff records, may be accessed infrequently by only one or two employees.

Think about how data is transferred. Is it sent by email, streamed online or simply moved on flash drives? What kind of security measures are in place (eg encryption)?

When using online storage services like Dropbox, consider how many computers, tablets or smartphones have access to the account, as it is likely some of them will keep up-to-date local copies of the files, too.

Build up a comprehensive list of data stored in your business

For each type of data, you should know where it is stored, how often it is accessed, and who uses it.

In the case of personal data, you should also keep records of how it was obtained, for what purpose, on what legal basis (eg individuals’ consent), and for how long it will be retained. You must be able to demonstrate compliance, so record everything you do with respect to data protection.

You can use this list to pinpoint risks in the way your business handles data.

Your legal obligations

You must comply with the GDPR

The GDPR aims to ensure personal privacy, by giving individuals rights with regards to the information organisations store about them.

Most personal information your business holds is subject to the GDPR. Even that which might not immediately identify someone, eg that which has been pseudonymised, may still qualify as personal data if it can be used to identify an individual (eg in combination with other data). Online identifiers such as IP addresses also qualify.

If you hold personal information, you will probably have to pay a fee to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Invest in multi-user cloud storage

Invest in multi-user cloud storage platforms by signing up to their business plans. These will provide users with their own usernames and passwords, much like you’d have on a local network, thus offering full accountability and greater security of data.

Wherever your data is stored, always take some key precautions to protect it

Install up-to-date security software on all your computers and servers and scan regularly for viruses and other malware.

If data is kept on a system connected to the internet, use both software and hardware firewalls to keep out hackers.

Consider using encryption to protect your most important information. This scrambles the stored data and is much more secure than simple password protection. Microsoft Windows and macOS have encryption facilities built in.

Remember physical security for in-house servers. Keep your servers in a secure room and use locks to keep laptops secure.

Consider disposal carefully. Data stored on the hard drive of a computer, tablet or smartphone has to be erased before the device leaves the office for disposal and recycling. Where possible, use a secure method of erasure. For completely secure erasure of electronic data, the only guaranteed way of rendering data fully unrecoverable is physical destruction (eg grinding a hard disk drive to dust; although this is unlikely to be necessary for the average business).

4. Data use

Only give each of your employees access to the data they need

If your staff cannot access data, they cannot change or delete it - either deliberately or by mistake.

Make sure every employee has access to the data they need to do their job.

Use secure logins to provide different access levels

Give each member of staff their own username and password.

Microsoft Windows and macOS allow you to grant different access levels to different users.

Make sure other business software allows you to set up staff logins too.

Mobile access can be a headache

Consider providing a virtual private network (VPN) so employees can securely connect to your company systems from outside the business.

Consider limiting the types of data that can be accessed or used on mobile devices in your business policies (eg your data protection policy).

In situations where laptops are to be used for particularly sensitive or confidential work, consider using privacy filters on the displays, which limit the viewing angle - allowing the user to see what’s on the screen, but not those either side of them.

Have clearly-defined methods for transferring data

Data is vulnerable when in transit, whether being sent across the internet or by post. Always encrypt important data before transferring it.

Ask your IT supplier or web host to enable security protocols such as SSL and IPSec for transferring data on the internet.

If you are transferring data outside your business, make sure you are in compliance with data protection legislation, and that the recipient understands how they can use it. If personal data is being processed by a third party, a contract should be in place that clearly sets out the obligations of the data controller (ie you) and the data processor (the third party) with respect to data protection and compliance with the law as well as other important points such as liability and indemnity.

Make sure additional copies of data are only held for as long as necessary - whether inside or outside your company.

You may need to strike a balance between security and convenience

Adding too many security measures can make it harder for employees to do their jobs, and encourage them to find shortcuts.

For instance, employees with multiple passwords for multiple systems may write them down, ultimately reducing the security of those systems.

To achieve a good balance, test out different security options and ask employees what they think.

5. Backing up data

Set up an effective backup procedure

Backups are extra copies of data. You can use them to restore data if your working copy is lost.

Make sure you test your backup procedures regularly, to check that they work and you know how to recover data.

Take backups regularly

Back up your data every day. Modern backup services (both on- and offline) offer real-time backups of files as they are accessed and modified.

Modern backup services will schedule and manage backups automatically by offering incremental backup routines that provide multiple restore points for each file.

If running backups manually, do so in rotation. For instance, when running daily backups, you might keep separate backups for each of the previous seven days. This allows you to roll back to a particular point in time.

Choose a backup method that suits you

Online backup services are now the most common and enable you to store your data safely in the cloud. The responsibility of maintaining regular, incremental backups is handed to the service provider who should also offer multiple restore methods should you need to retrieve your data at any time.

Although less common, you can also backup your data to removable disks such as portable USB hard drives or USB sticks.

You can use a RAID system to mirror your data onto several disks. This allows you to continue working in the event of disk failure, but you need to store offsite backups, too.

You can carry out a basic backup manually. Just copy your files onto a cloud storage service (such as DropBox), a portable hard drive or USB stick.

Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS have backup functions built in. This is adequate for basic backups and provides quick restore methods.

Ensure someone in your business has responsibility for backups

Give one person the task of ensuring your backup procedures are functioning properly.

Make sure they report to you regularly, and test restoring from the backups at least once a quarter.

Ensure they also have a deputy, who can cover for absences.

6. Effective communication

Ensure everyone in your business understands the importance of data security

Systems and processes alone are not enough to keep data secure.

Your staff have access to the data, so they must take responsibility for its security too.

Communicate the policies and procedures which cover storing and using data

Your employees will have to work within the guidelines you set them, so involve them in the creation of these procedures.

Run practical workshops explaining why data security is important.

Demonstrate how procedures should be implemented.

Train employees in the basics of data protection law.

If possible, make data security policies and guidelines available to all staff via the company intranet.